Mass Audubon‘s annual “Giving Thanks for the Land” presentation was held at the Drumlin Farm Sanctuary in Lincoln this afternoon from about 1:45 to 3:45.  Bob Wilber opened the presentation by reminding us of why we were there: to celebrate land conservation, to thank each other, and to share a sense of accomplishment.  He continued by thanking the many people and groups who participate in this important work: state agencies, municipal partners, local land trusts, landowners, the Mass Audubon Board and staff.  During 2014, he said, there was a growing recognition of the importance of land conservation to people, to their health and safety.  In fact, land conservation has two purposes: first, to help plants and animals, and second, to help people, by providing clean drinking water, fresh air, access to locally-grown food, places to de-stress, and a means of connecting to the next generation.  Access to the land should be available to all ages and all abilities, he emphasized.

Healthy nature, Bob said, will help mitigate the devastating effects of climate change.  For example, a healthy beach protects against storm surges; intact forests store carbon.  In fact, preserved land enhances nature’s resilience in four major ways: first, by reducing stressors such as invasive species; second, by restoring the forms and functions of natural systems; third, by connecting and linking large tracts of land; and fourth, by increasing the complexity of the landscape.  Some recent examples of Mass Audubon’s work in establishing landscape resilience are the Cold Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in Sandisfield and Otis, the Whetstone Wood Wildlife Sanctuary which connects with the Wendell State Forest and other protected lands from the Quabbin north to Mount Cardigan, and the Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary in Rowley.  These three projects are examples of the third effect: connecting large parcels of undeveloped land enables natural nutrient and energy flows, predator-prey relationships, pollination, seed dispersal, and many other ecological processes.  Another restoration project currently in progress (Mass Audubon is a partner) is Tidmarsh Farms, a 577-acre farm in Plymouth; the intention here is to restore a wetland in order to create a more diverse landscape than was previously possible with a cranberry bog monoculture.

The heart of the program today was stories, personal stories of hard work and dedication and perseverance, and of course, this is what I came to hear.  These are the three featured stories.

Mass Audubon President Henry Tepper, relatively new to his position, was the first speaker. He began by saying, “I’m a big land guy,” and in fact, he came to Mass Audubon from The Nature Conservancy, for whom land conservation is a pillar of the organization’s mission. The story he told took place in southern New Hampshire in 1995-1996: a piece of property which they called Wilton Woods came on the market and was earmarked for quick development. When Henry, who headed the southern New Hampshire chapter of TNC, went with his staff to visit the property one summer afternoon, they instantly realized that it was a very special place and that they had to save it. Thus began a gruelling campaign to raise $700,000 for the 122 acres. It’s a familiar story, perhaps because it follows the “against-all-odds” trajectory so closely, beginning with the meetings in people’s living rooms, the car washes and bake sales, the slow seepage of this issue into public awareness with local and regional publicity. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending: with only days to go before the deadline, an unexpected benefactor sent a check to cover the shortfall, and the land was saved. Today, the Sheldrick Forest Preserve is a much-loved place, with one of the trails named in honor of the eleventh-hour benefactor’s son.

Bob Ford and Bob Merry spoke next about Mass Audubon’s efforts in Rowley to preserve their open space.  Rowley is a quiet coastal town in Essex County, first settled in the seventeenth century, originally agricultural as all towns were, and now more of a Boston bedroom community.  Starting over a decade ago, these preservation efforts focused on three properties, the Minister’s Woodlot, the Bradstreet Farm, and the Rowley Marsh. Back in 2000, the 22-acre Woodlot was preserved by a Conservation Restriction held by Mass Audubon and the Town, with ownership retained by the church, as all parties agreed that the connection to the church was culturally significant. The 120-acre Bradstreet Farm was settled in 1635 and is one of the few remaining properties called a “King’s Grant” (this one was granted by King Charles); the land remained in the same family for ten generations. The speakers noted that Rowley was one of the first communities in Massachusetts to pass the CPA, the Community Preservation Act, and they used all four of its purposes to purchase the Farm for $2.75 million in 2007.  Protected by CPA funds in 2011, the Rowley Marsh is part of the 14,000 acre Great Marsh ecosystem, one of the more endangered landscapes in the northeastern United States. The Marsh has been used by farmers, artists, sportsmen, and nature lovers, and now, thanks to its protection, it will continue to be enjoyed by the public.  Looking ahead, the Town of Rowley would like to conserve 200 acres of a former Girl Scout camp and is actively working toward this end.

The third speaker, Lloyd Macdonald, reflected on being involved in the first transfer of a conservation restriction to Mass Audubon forty years ago. First introduced in Massachusetts in 1969 in Governor Sargent’s administration, a Conservation Restriction is a tool to preserve land by specifying development rights as part of land ownership; it’s a legal agreement, approved by the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs and recorded at the Registry of Deeds. At a minimum, the owner of the CR agrees to complete baseline documentation of the property and visit the property at least annually after purchase, in order to monitor compliance with the deed. Mr Macdonald is one of five siblings whose family owned hundreds of acres of shore-front property on Buzzard’s Bay (not on the Cape, by the way, but near the Allens Pond Sanctuary in Dartmouth). The original 300 acres came into the family in 1931 and was farmed for many years.  It is indeed a spectacular place.  For example, at Barney’s Joy Point, one can look out across the channel to Cutty Hunk Island.  As Mr Macdonald told it, as his mom grew older, she began to worry about preserving the land in its rural state; thus she charged her son Lloyd, a lawyer, with doing something about it.  He decided to meet with Allen Morgan of Mass Audubon, and in 1971, they hammered out a CR agreement on 157 acres. Pleased with the relationship, the family placed another 80 acres under a CR in 1986.  With this partnership, the family believes its vision for the land is secure.